This Too Shall Pass
by knight-who-said-NI
Summary: Marie was bruised and battered by her father and older brother until she ran away from home... but will the stranger who takes her in open her eyes to a new world of love, or will he push her further into a life of fear?
1. Streetside Chaos

A/N: Hey! I'm Laura, the autor of this fanfic. This is my first "Newsies" based fanfic, however I've written several Harry Potter ficlets on numerous other sites. I really hope that you enjoy this story. I'll try to post a new chapter every week, or week and a half at the latest. I'm estimating that this story will have no more than 10 chapters.  
  
Disclaimer: I own none of the Newsies characters from The Disney movie of "Newsies". I only hold the rights to my own original characters. I am not and have no intention of making a profit off of this story.  
  
---------------------------------------------*CHAPTER 1*-------------------- ---------------------------  
  
Sometimes you don't know why things happen...they just do, you know? People say things they don't mean, and it hurts. But what hurts even more is a bruise on your side the size of Delaware and bleeding cuts with nothing to dress them with. All that matters then is gettin tha hell away from the person who did it to you, But sometimes it seems impossible.  
  
I left the house after 11, not a safe thing to do for a girl my age. Tha only others on the street were those who were so poor that they had to sell their bodies. That was not what I was about. Not at all. I got the hell away from that building. I ran as fast and as far as I could, till I didn't recognise anything. It was so dark I couldn't see the rats at my feet, nibbling at my shoestrings. I stopped to rest at a corner with a light. I had to think about what the hell I was doing, was it really worth it to run this far? Could I handle a new world all by myself? Even if I had decided I couldn't, there was no way I could go back home. Not ever.  
  
Then I felt a tugging at the hem of my dress. Whatever it was that was tugging started to climb up. I stood up, screaming, making the biggest fuss I ever had. People poked their heads out of the teniment windows and stared at me. Must have looked pretty strange, a screaming girl, running in circles round a lightpost, flinging her skirts up over her head. A group of scrawny looking boys gathered to gawk. I turned and stared at them. "Don't just stand there with your gobs hanging open! Help me!" Not a single one of them moved. One on the smaller boys began to laugh as I angered.  
  
"Aww, look at the princess. What's wrong? Can't handle a rat?" He snickered and wiped his snotty nose on his shirtsleeve.  
  
It had never occured to me that what was scratching around could've been a rat. I could feel my face pale, and I got cold all of a sudden, like someone had thrown me into a basin of icewater.  
  
"A...r-r-rat-t?" I could barely get the words out before I felt myself getting dizzy. I stumbled, about to hit the pavement when something caught me...or should I say, someone. I don't remember much. I try to block out of my mind what happened next. Surely if you had a boy stick his hand up your skirt and pull out a rodent you would too.  
  
"You're lucky he didn't bite you. Nasty things... got 'em crawlin' all over the docks. You get used to 'em after a while. Let me tell you, the rats in these parts are feistier than Brookly boys after a night out drinkin'. Climbed right up there...bet he didn't even bother to ask if they could have a peek or nothin'."  
  
I looked up at the boy who had helped me. He was on his knees, cradling one of my feet in his hand, rubbing his jaw gingerly with the other.I must have kicked him amidst the chaos.  
  
"Did I hurt you?" I sat up and pushed the folds of my skirt down. The boy backed away slightly. "Let me see it."  
  
"No goil ever hurt a newsie, 'specially me." He stood up and adjusted his cap. Standing in the light I could now see him more clearly. He was tall and sort of thin, in an appealing way. One eye was brown, and the other was hidden behind an eyepatch. His chestnut hair stuck out from under his cap in an unruly way, but it didn't seem to bother him.  
  
"Oh, of course not..." I muttered. I started to stand up when I felt his hand at my elbow. I smiled slightly, but he gave no reply to it.  
  
"Hey, Blink... you turnin' soft on us?" hollered the newsie who had spoke before. His laugh resembled the squeak of a rat getting it's tail stepped on. I stood up completely and marched over to him.  
  
"If you think soft is helping a lady up, then you need to learn some manners." he simply laughed louder, making a bigger display of himself.  
  
"Well, it's the least he could do after feelin' you up!" He spat in my face in between chuckles. That was it. Before I knew what happened, I was on top of him, yanking at his hair and pulling at his limbs like some sort of maniac. I looked down at him and his expression shocked me...he was actually afraid. His eyes were helpless. I couldn't put my finger on it, but he reminded me of someone I knew. I abruptly stopped, knowing where I had seen a face like that before. That face was my face. That look of fear was what I had painted on my own as my father had cornered me earlier. I gasped and burried my face in my hands. All around were silent as I wept.  
  
It was only a few seconds before I felt two hands at my waist, pulling me. "C'mon, you're suffocatin' the kid..." I tugged at the hands as hard as I could, but they wouldn't let go.  
  
"Get off of me...please..." I whimpered. I looked at the boys around me. Most were avoiding eye contact, but the runty one that I had attacked was staring at me in awe. He held his right shoulder with his left arm and rubbed it gently.  
  
"I'se... I'se is sorry, lady... I didn't mean nothin' by it, honest." He spit in his hand and offered it to me, which caused me to let out a tiny wail and scoot away. "Alright then..." he drew his hand back and stood up.  
  
"Let's go, boys." said the boy with the patch, he seemed to be the oldest and in charge at the time, "We's had to be home an hour ago." they started to walk away. I thought for a second. Where was I supposed to sleep tonight? I couldn't stay on the street, not unless I wanted to be eaten alive by more rats. I then made boldest decision of my life, with the exception of running away from home.  
  
"Wait! Please... don't leave. I have no place to stay," I hesistated,"c-c-can... can I stay with you?" I spoke those last words with some hint of doubt in my voice. I could see the the oldest newsie eyeing me. I rubbed my upper arms with my hands to warm myself from the bitter autumn air. It must have been at least three minutes before he responded.  
  
"Come on. We's gots to hurry if we wants to get beds tonight." 


	2. Amidst the Dark

Disclaimer: I own none of the Newsies characters from The Disney movie of "Newsies". I only hold the rights to my own original characters. I am not and have no intention of making a profit off of this story.  
  
---------------------------------------------*CHAPTER 2*-------------------- ---------------------------  
  
The bed was hard, the sheets were thin, the pillows were flat, the boys were loud and the air smelled. I longed to lie in my featherbed in a warm apartment, but that wasn't going to happen. I snuffed out the stubby candle beside my bed and yawned. The breeze whistled through a large crack in the wall behind the head of my bunk. It blew down the back of my neck and I hugged the sheets closer to my body. Just as I had closed my eyes I heard the floor creak. I looked over my left shoulder towards the door. The door was open and in the dim light of the hallway stood an older man. He entered the room as quietly as possible and knelt down by a bed. I could hear his strained whisper.  
  
"Blink, how many times do I hafta tell yous? No goils in da bordin' house! Dey tend to ...provoke... da odda boys..." he scolded. I could see the boy's chest heave in a sigh. He cupped his hand and whispered something into the man's ear and rolled over in his bed. "Fine...one more night...odda wise, yous gots ta teach her to carry da bannah. She can't live for free, ya know."  
  
I shut my eyes tightly, realizing that he was right. There was only so long that I could survive without having to work. Without my father... I was simply another street rat... not even a dollar to my name.  
  
Closing my eyes once more, I was inches away from no doubt a restless sleep when the floor under my bed shook. I sat up and looked into the bunk below me to faintly spy a gangly boy tangled up in his bed sheet, fast asleep on the ground. I carefully climbed down from my bed and knelt down next to the boy.  
  
"Uhm...excuse me? Hey... wake up!" I shook him as hard as I could. Suddenly a fist flew towards my face. I ducked just in time. The boy sat up.  
  
"Who is it?" He squinted, and I could tell that it was hard for him to make out my features in the dark. I searched blindly for the candle. I wrapped my fingers around what must have been the wick and immediately dropped it. The wax was still hot. I picked it up again and struck a match on the ground. The candle lit immediately and cast an odd shadow upon everything. The boy opened his eyes, then rubbed them and opened them even wider. "Whos is you?" he questioned loudly, obviously having no regard for the silence.  
  
"My name is Margaret."  
  
"No, I mean your newsie name."  
  
"I-I'm afraid I don't have one of those." I said, puzzled.  
  
"Mine is Skittery"  
  
"Skittery..." I mimicked, deciding that it had a catchy sound to it.  
  
"Yous is a rare one. Not too many newsies don't gots a newsie name."  
  
"Oh, I'm not a newsie," I said looking down at the candle. It was almost completely burnt out, "I'm just here for a night."  
  
"Really? Who brought ya?" I pointed over at the boy with the eye patch who, at the moment, was sleeping on his side so that he was facing us. His mouth was hanging wide open. Skittery laughed. "Blink. How you knows him?" he asked.  
  
"Actually... I just met him tonight" Skittery looked at me with those same wide eyes and blinked again,  
  
"One night...boy, yous must be easy!" I scowled at him slightly and he laughed. "I's is just kiddin' ya."  
  
"I should hope so!" I said firmly. He hushed me and laughed under his breath. The light from the candle went out completely and we were thrown into the darkness.  
  
"You seem pretty classy. How come yous is here?"  
  
I hesitated slightly. "... I ran away from home." I whispered, not wanting to admit that I was alone. I looked down glumly at the dark floor.  
  
"Hey... cheer up. None of us gots nobody either. Tell yous what... tomorrow, if yous want to... yous can sell papes wid me an some of my boys. I'll even help yous pick a name." He offered. I looked up, and in the moonlight I could see that he was smiling at me. I went to reply, but all that came out was a yawn, so instead, I nodded. "Get some sleep, We's is gettin' up early tomorrow." With that he helped me back up into my bunk, and as soon as my head hit the pillow I was fast asleep.  
  
A/N: I know I know... this chapter was a little bit shorter than the first one, but I'm just trying to get into the swing of things. I'm working on filling out the characters now... their likes, dislikes, ambitions and fears...those things. I usually do this when I act... I love this stuff. I would also like to say thank you to my first 2 reviewers, Southern Spell(the cake was deliscious) & Strawberry Bunny. 


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